THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT  2021
 
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the deeds of darkness and to put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
 
This is the Word of the Lord
Romans 13 :10 - 13
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
 

THE ADVENT ALARM

Understanding the present time: Life in the present is not an index of what is to continue or to come. Our current condition cannot be guaranteed to remain. Our state of mind or circumstance is fragile to the force of changeable and fluctuating fortune beyond our ability to determine or influence. Divine Providence reigns over time and motion, and the future is unpredictable; although man cannot resist the temptation to venture forecasts with certainty that is unwarranted. This is a daring beyond the lowly attitude of prayer and dependence upon the wisdom of the Divine.
 
Any present comfort, coziness, or composure is unreliable. Time moves swiftly and new events occur rapidly that can totally alter a situation with suddenness. A sense of repose can be seriously risky. There is a human tendency to rest and revel in the abeyance of alertness to instant emergency - a state of contentment unguarded against any kind of surprise or crisis. Snoozing can be a way of life. A slumbering present can inure us to incidents of shock that require immediate attention and preparation for decisive action.
 
The present time is not a permanent state of affairs but the threshold to successive developments, good and bad, and it is good to be on guard for whatever eventuates in order to take advantageous or defensive measures. Believers take cognizance of the pledges and warnings of God as to what the future will contain, without a revealed timetable of fulfillment. Readiness is to be their watchword. Every hour is to be the hour of expectation. We wake up quickly from lapses into slumber knowing that the promised Day of the Lord portends triumph for some and tragedy for others. It is imperative that we heed the Gospel that will divide the sheep from the goats. The last day approaches ineluctably. The hour has come for an encounter with reality.
 
The day is almost here: Heaven’s red-letter day is firmly fixed and established as to when it will appear. It must always be considered as imminent. “But the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:10). It is designed to surprise, though much warning is delivered in good time for us to be on the alert. For Christians the undisclosed date of the Lord’s appearing is prospectively a cause of immense joy and eager anticipation.
 
Salvation is now nearer than when we first believed: Salvation is our immediate hope and inheritance the moment we believe. We possess it fully through the promise of God’s sure word. But entrance to everlasting life won for us by Jesus Christ is preceded by a travel through time until we connect with eternity. Our union with the Lord Jesus through saving faith affords the certainty that our unfailing Companion will lead us home as we follow in his steps, his hand holding ours. “God will show us the path of life; in his presence is the fullness of joy: and at his right hand there is pleasure for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).
 
Earth’s night of uncertainty, trial, temptation, sin, grief and doubt is almost over. The darkness need not enclose our lives any longer, nor influence our desires and deeds. The light of the Lord protects and guides us. His word, wisdom, and commands help us to choose our way carefully and to walk in safety. Paul adumbrates the sinful, careless, life driven by carnal urges in such distasteful terms that grieve us. But without grace none of us could avoid the most horrid tendencies of our fallen nature. We are always in need of exhortations to holiness, reminders of moral danger, and protection from entrapment. The certainty of the Day of The Lord enables us to press on in resolute righteousness. The enticements of a sinful world cannot dissuade us from the vision of our Saviour’s glorious Majesty. Indeed we delight to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ: his mind, his truth, his fellowship, his influence within, his shining purity, and tender conformity to the likeness and will of God. How rapturous is such closeness to him in repudiation of the wicked world that bequeaths us only shame, guilt, and separation from a gracious and good God, the only delight of a converted and regenerate heart.

Jesus, the Redeemer of the world, will come as stern judge of the whole earth, its total population throughout all time. None shall escape his universal scrutiny and just verdict. With fondness he will regard each one of his chosen people. He will bid them and bind them to himself. What inexhaustible bliss.
 
With justice he will banish all who refuse him and have desired never to know and trust him; those who fail to truly repent and sincerely believe his holy gospel.
The Advent Alarm gives shrill bidding to all to consider the summons of the gospel with grave good sense.
 
The present will pass. And so too the day of salvation.
 
“Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen” (1 Peter 3: 17-18).

RJS

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY  2021
 
Collect
Lord God, our refuge and strength, and the author of all godliness: Be ready to hear the devout prayers of your Church, and grant that what we ask faithfully we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
From the Word of the Lord
The Epistle
Philippians 3:17 - 21
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
 
The Gospel
Matthew 22:15 - 22
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.  Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
 
Citizenship in Heaven and Earthly Things
 
The Christian life is two dimensional. We sojourn on Earth but our sight is on heaven. What binds these two aspects of our existence together is the sovereignty of Christ. Paul and Matthew merge in bringing these two themes together and they are to be entwined as we live out our allotted time in the world and anticipate everlasting life in the presence of God.
Christ is the content of both modes of life. He is our Lord in our day to day experience and our eternal expectation. As believers we know him to be the sum of our two-fold reality - the earthly phase and the heavenly eon. There is the sense in our dual-leveled place of abode, one temporary—this transient world, the other timeless—the world to come, that there is a variation in authority. Here, God rules through human appointment to various forms of civil authority. In eternity God will govern directly and immediately in his majestic supremacy, seen, surrounding and sensed. We glean an understanding of this supremacy, historical and heavenly, performed through the Lord Jesus, from evidence indicated in our two passages of Scripture.
 
Matthew raises the issue of the authority of Caesar representing the civil administration exerted over communities and countries. The dialogue recorded by the apostle rightly describes the function and rights of human administration – service to the citizenry and the collection of enabling taxation. But there also seems to be an implied irony as well. Jesus points out the power of the state and its possession of permission to raise tribute money: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But strictly speaking the authority and levies gained by Caesar are God’s and Caesar is simply a trustee. Compared to the authority of the Lord Jesus, all human power is trifling. The wicked and conspiratorial band of Pharisees and Herodians had no concept of the Owner and Disposer of all things with whom they were deceitfully dealing.
 
Courteously, Jesus acknowledged Caesar and his borrowed greatness, but in reality and justice he could have laughed at his vaunted pre-eminence and consigned the portrait to scorn. In reality Caesar has nothing that is not God-given. Nonetheless civil government is an ordinance of God, and even citizens of heaven and the children of the King are to render proper submission and obedience in all matters moral and beneficial. Earthly order and peaceful society is a Christian priority. But, indeed, the believer is law abiding because it pleases his Lord to be such. Beyond the role of human authority to command, the people of God perceive duties to be fulfilled in obeisance to the divine will. To give to God what is God’s requires our all.
 
Paul in the entire spread of his teaching provides a pattern for the life of faith, namely, the thought that determines attitude and action. It is an internal template ingrafted upon the heart and not an external code dictating outward behavior. According to the apostle our minds must rise above exclusively earthly things, even those matters legitimate for this life. To the fore of our mental life, and its expression through the inclination of the affections, should be the glory of the cross. The stream of our understanding of God flows from the supreme revelation of his being and ways from the deep and wide contemplation of the cross of Christ in its intent, meaning and accomplishment. The cross is the cure of our maladies and the confirmation of our blessedness.
 
It confers upon us citizenship in heaven, and presents to us the Lord Jesus Christ as our heaven-sent Saviour. This humble, lowly, obedient Victim on our behalf is now exalted to the loftiest pinnacle of divine power and authority. He is seated upon the summit of absolute control over all things celestial and all things created – vast cosmos and speck-like planet of our habitation. Here, we await his second scheduled Advent from the Throne above in order to consummate the history of mankind, dissolve our orbiting sphere, and bring a new heaven and a new earth into one. The crowning message of the two apostles is the splendor of the lovely Lord Jesus in total command of absolutely everything, and the co-author with the Father and the Spirit of the utterly indescribably spectacular universal transformation.
 
RJS

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY after TRINITY 2021

​Collect
Lord God, keep your household the Church grounded in continual godliness, we humbly pray, so that by your protection it may be free from all adversities, and may devoutly serve you in good works to the glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Psalm for Anglicanism ? A Modern Musing.
Psalm 44 from the lectionary of the day.

1. We have heard with our ears O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. Not all of us in our day are familiar with the saga of the reformed catholic Church of England. Many of us in the Anglican Communion are indifferent to our long term history, and there are many who wish to either ignore it or reverse it. The 16th century Ecclesia Anglicana moved with cautious heroism into the family of Reformed Churches, retaining loyalty to the ancient creeds, guarded respect for the church fathers, and everything from the past that could be deemed consonant with Holy Scripture. All preceding orthodoxy and its saintly exponents of earlier generations were deeply cherished and inclusive within our precious Christian heritage that respected the Bible as the Word of God. Our Reformers established a sound scriptural foundation for our faith in God, our obedience to his will, and the worship of his Name. Those days long ago need to be recaptured in our minds. The past needs to enter our present with renewed power.

2. With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. Just as Israel had to establish a holy land so the pastors and scholars of the English Church had to embrace and advocate the holy truth of divine revelation. With fluctuating fortune, the providence of God, the men of the Reformation were greatly blessed, a renewed Church graced the land, and continual reform of the Church in line with Scripture was the aspiration. No wonder that the French author Victor Hugo could remark that, “the Bible made England!”

3. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. Human instrumentalities are always used in the advancement of Christ’s cause on earth, but the effectiveness is always the Lord’s. Divine power, his love, and his favor achieve good and godly ends.

4. You are my king and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. The beleaguered believer always reckons on the fact that the phases and developments of history are dispensed by the rule of God. History is the domain of his sovereign direction. So too, the Church knows that its weal and welfare is determined by God through the fluctuations between blessing and judgment - his presence or withdrawal.

5. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. It is God alone who can fend off our opponents or repulse those who distort his truth or pollute his worship; those who oppress us with sinful behavior and example that mars our peace and safety - those still of the world, being carnal, and those who infiltrate the people of God and disturb their godliness and righteous sensibilities with wrong and wicked ways. Where the power of truth subsides immorality attains dominion and popular support. Irrationality and depravity prevails, as in our generation - a new “era of the judges” as recounted between the books Joshua and Ruth.

6. I do not trust my bow, my sword, does not bring me victory; Human expertise and endeavor do not overcome the forces and influences of moral evil and doctrinal error. What ever our equipage we cannot boast about or rely on “our bow” the responses we fire in the field of battle, or “our sword”; of hand to hand conflict. Apologetics and polemics are useless without the prompting and help of the Lord, for they are temptations to a self-congratulatory frame of mind. “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19). Defenders and proponents of the faith need the same upholding and accurate aim of the Speaker of all truth. Dealing with today’s situation we all of us need great and special grace in our speech concerning God and his Gospel. No showing off! (lairizing, Aust)

7. But you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. This is the antithesis to human self-confidence in the struggles of the faith, doctrinal and practical. Humility is the approach. God will defend himself through the self-offering of his people and their utter dependence upon the Lord: “Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12: 11-12). This encouragement does not, of course, obviate the task of preparation where possible; it affects delivery, as with Samuel).

8. In God we make our boast all day long, and will praise your name forever. The psalmist is keenly aware that in all things, but especially in any form of conflict, that he must totally place his confidence in God. He is a man of godly, holy, trusting heart. He affirms that God is reliable. But the covenant relation involves two parties - Yahweh and Israel. The covenant arrangement entails blessing and penalty. It requires joint faithfulness. Infidelity toward God cannot be overlooked by a good and just God. Leniency from God may provide recall to himself but initial correction or chastening is necessary to intelligent conviction of wrongdoing and offense, and beyond this, to deliberate repentance; education and re-entry to favor.

9. But now you have rejected us and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. Israel wantonly forfeited the favor and fighting strength of God. The faithful psalmist laments the decadence of his nation. We are Israel, believing Jews and Gentiles together. You might say that Anglicanism is one of the tribes. Have we departed so very far from the Lord (Article 9) that he has withdrawn from us?

Will there ever be a whole-hearted return to our rootedness in truth and the loyalty to Scripture? Will our Augustinian tradition once again prevail as grounded in Paul, the apostles and prophets? Will a remnant be raised up to hold the fort. The Church “is a Guardian of Holy Scripture” (Article 20).

RJS

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINIY 2021

Collect
Merciful Lord, Grant, we humbly pray, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SACRED SCRIPTURE
Genesis 32 : 22 - 29

The Wounded Wrestler

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the brook Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him.

Alone: It was a night of acute fear for Jacob, for he was about to encounter his aggrieved brother Esau whom he had swindled of his birthright and blessing in sly action of meanest deceit (Genesis 27). Would Esau wish to wreak revenge on the morrow when the estranged brothers accosted each other? Darkness and aloneness, filled with mental unease, can be frightfully chilling. The imagination can work overtime creating ice-cold dread and exaggerating an ominous sense of danger. Jacob was intensely nervous. 

A man wrestled with him: At what point in the lonely night the aggressor sprang upon Jacob we do not know, but it was a sudden and frightening attack, and a gruelling and intense struggle endured until daybreak. An unknown assailant seized upon Jacob, and together they grabbed at and gripped each other, engaging in various holds and hand to hand tactics, applying many painful maneuvers, and perhaps blows, to the other’s body, grappling both offensively and defensively. The tussle was vigorous and exhausting. Muscle power and breath must have been reduced to a very low ebb as dawn began to lighten the sky.

Let me go: The mystery man of the night assault asks for cessation of the struggle. He commenced combat and now he concludes it. His purpose has been fulfilled.

I will not let you go: Jacob senses that he has been grappling with God. He petitions an urgent blessing. The ongoing conflict is worth it, if it yields a needed blessing. He must hold on strenuously until the Lord bestows his favor, for the wrestling is an objective event that reflects his turmoil within - “Will God help me?” Jacob must persevere in the obtainment of divine aid.

What is your name?: In this enquiry Jacob is starkly confronted with his sinful, undeserving nature; that of a swindler, a cheat, a crafty “go-getter” of no moral integrity. From the very womb, clutching at Esau’s ankles, during the birth of Rachel’s twin boys, Jacob was the consummate grabber of anything throughout life that suited him and was to his personal advantage, no matter how it affected others.

“Your name will no longer be Jacob”: This is a statement of divine authority and sovereign (electing) intent. The God-man gives Jacob another name. However, we see that his family and biblical history still call him Jacob. The real point is not the mere changing of his name, but the transformation of the old Jacob’s former character. He will no longer think and act in the nature of the old Jacob, but in the ways of a new creature, born from above, namely Israel who has contended for mercy with the Lord, and passed through a profound transaction with the Lord personally; that is conviction of sin and fresh desire for mercy.

Tell me your name: God in his majestic supremacy will not disclose his name to Jacob at this juncture in divine revelation. He is high above all obligation to man. The fierce struggle in deliverance and prayer does not render us in any way familiar (chummy) with God, or give us the slightest cause for a sense of control over him, he being at our bidding, or, as the pagans believed, we wielding magical mastery over the Deity via spells and incantations. Whatever God does is in accord with his absolute, incontestable sovereignty.

If he calls us to an encounter with him through prayer that is sweet and comforting, or through struggle that is long term and taxing, he is always the sovereign initiator, actor, and benefactor in the matter of our contending with him and the petitions directed humbly toward him.

Presumption as to entitlement of access to God, or any self-serving advantage from him in our own right of claim is utterly forbidden and impossible of success. Humanity deserves no good thing from God. The exercise of his goodness is a matter of divine prerogative and determination alone. The disclosure of the divine name to us is an unearned, unmerited privilege - YAHWEH, Old Testament, or JESUS, New Testament. His personal names are the key to his intimate fellowship and favor, disclosed as a gesture of divine humility and fondest love. The Lord who is Light when he deigns to shine is Mystery also, hidden when he chooses.

Jacob and Ourselves: We, too, are called to be wrestlers with God. Whether it may be through times of particular ordeal, or simple regularity in communion and prayer, God gives us clues for our approach to him, and arguments for our requests. Scripture is the handbook for the method of engagement with the Lord and the language of discourse with God. The Bible blesses us with sufficient knowledge of the mind of the Lord that imparts a reverent intimacy with him. 

As with Jacob, we are encouraged to maintain a degree of cautious yet confident persistence with him, knowing that he knows best and will persevere in that which is best for us. He may “make haste” or require us to wait. But he will not ignore the concerns of his children. These may be caused to abate or solicit his intervention. When we come to our Jabbok, may the Lord be our Rock!

RJS

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021

Collect
Almighty and most merciful God, keep us by your bountiful goodness, we pray you, from all things that may hurt us, so that we always be ready both in body and soul cheerfully to accomplish whatever you would have us do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


The Word of God

Matthew 22: 8-10
Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Luke 14: 22 - 23
“Sir,” the servant said, "what you have ordered has been done, but there is still room." Then the master told his servant, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full."


THE INDISCRIMINATE INVITATION

“God invites all men to himself, without a single exception . . . As no man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open to all men; neither is there any other thing which keeps us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief.”
John Calvin.

How explicit is the free offer of the gospel enunciated by the two excerpts from the compared versions of the parable of the great banquet. The heavenly invitation is extended emphatically, boldly, vividly from the lips of the Savior himself.

There is a universal, wide-open appeal to all persons to heed and receive the gospel promise. How strong this appeal is in the message spoken by the Lord Jesus. It is to be conveyed where ever there are people. Not simply special, polite, important and privileged places, or convenient places, but very definitely the streets, roads, out of the way lanes and byways where “all sorts” mingling in daily routines and business are to be found - not just the respectable, but the lowly who walk the thoroughfares and pathways also, and where the unacceptable loiter - from the Strand to Skid Row - God equips his servants suitably. The Church, in the breadth of its membership, receives this commission, and possesses divinely bestowed skills in the many who constitute the People of God. It is not Christians who should discriminate: make them all come in, both good and bad. The goal is to make Master’s house full and as day follows day “still there is room”.

The required wedding garment is provided by the host. The only barrier to entering is personal unbelief, the sense that I do not require the garb of grace and the robe of repentance. Sinners themselves consign themselves to final shame and exclusion from God. We ask ourselves, for how long shall the invitation be current?

RJS

The Collect for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity 

Lord God, Let your continual pity cleanse and defend your Church, we humbly pray, and because it cannot continue in safety without your aid, always preserve and protect it by your help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

HOLY SCRIPTURE

1 Kings 17 : 17 - end
After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and he carried him up to the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the woman with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said. “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Luke 7 : 11 - 17
Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.


SEE, YOUR SON LIVES

Two widows separated by the centuries and very different domestic circumstances lose their sons to premature death and then have them miraculously restored to life by divine power.

The widow at Zarephath lived in poverty-stricken conditions so dire that both she and her son were on the verge of starvation when Elijah, at the bidding of the Lord, became her unexpected and long term guest, who through the word of the Lord guaranteed a daily supply of flour and oil from jar and jug for as long as necessary. Together prophet and parent witnessed and experienced the faithful and plenteous provision of God whose promises do not fail.

The widow of Nain, whose domestic circumstances are not disclosed, lived in a town that according to accurate translation could justly be called “Pleasant-ville”, which suggests a village of polite community outlook and pleasing prospect over the surrounding countryside. The grieving mother, unlike the poor lady of Elijah’s knowledge, seemed to have been supported by a great many of Nain’s residents who seemed as though they would have exercised some care over her in her lonely future.

Both mothers were torn by loss. The first suspected the punitive action of the Lord, the second attracted the compassion of the Savior in a situation of tender- hearted sorrow. The widow of Zarephath was sensitive to sin that continued to linger in her conscience and arouse, to some extent, the terror of the Lord. The widow of Nain is quickly consoled by the concern of Jesus and the recovery of her deceased son to an extension of life. One lady endures trauma at the first, and the second lady, at Messiah’s touch of the bier, meets with amazed joy at the rising of her son before her tear-filled eyes.

The administration of divine mercy differs in the accounts before us, but in essence sovereign grace emerges from the same heart of a compassionate Creator and affectionately embraces two deeply wounded souls, recreating their temporal existence, and addressing varying temperaments with a vivid understanding of the Lord’s huge power to vanquish the fearful foe of human death. Elijah, his ready action and fervent prayer prove instrumental in the miracle at Zarephath, and Jesus is personally present at the sign performed at Nain.

Death invades all lives, ranks and residences, rich and poor, with absolute certainty, and no region or room can shut it out and resist its gloom. Neither penury nor pleasant places can resist the inevitable intrusion of the “grim reaper” who stalks, and eventually tracks us down over the course of our sin. There is only one deliverance from, through and beyond the painful death due to our evil and arrogant breach with God, and that is the resurrection power of the Lord granting us birth from above before death, and a safe passage through death to life in the Kingdom where death is forbidden to enter.

These two women were granted infallible faith in God’s triumph over death and his power to reverse it. It is the unique ability of the Lord of Life and the strong consolation of they who trust him. Prophet and Messiah have, respectively, announced and demonstrated the fact of risen life for the people of God. And we have vital testimony throughout the record of Holy Scripture: a) “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” b) “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” This Visitor shows us the path of life.

From The Epistle For Today [Ephesians 3 : 13 - 21] vv20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021
 
COLLECT
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all things: Graft the love of your Name in our hearts, increase in us true piety and devotion, nourish us with all that is good, and in your great mercy keep us faithful; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 

SACRED SCRIPTURE
1 Kings 17:8 - 16
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
 
“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, I don’t have any bread — only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.  I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it — and die.
 
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.’ ”
 
So she went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
 

Mark 8:1 - 10a
During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”
 
His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
 
“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
 
“Seven,” they replied.
 
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present. And having sent them away, he got into the boat with his disciples.
 
END


“Let us observe from this passage that with Christ nothing is impossible . . . We must never allow ourselves to doubt Christ’s power to supply the spiritual needs of all his people.”  Bishop J.C. Ryle   


 
NOURISH US WITH ALL THAT IS GOOD
(The Collect)

Two narratives, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New, confirm the constancy of the lavish supply of divine necessities to the Lord’s people from the basic provision of nutrition from day to day, and by extension, to the needs of the soul - baker’s bread for “this day”, and the bread of heaven for spiritual sustenance and satisfaction. The Lord tends to body and the life of faith. Our mouths are fed by the grain of the field and our minds by the grain of the Word. The Lord is our strength both physically and in our personal piety and faithfulness. We digest his gift of food and eagerly devour his saving truth, absorbing all the benefits he bestows upon us. The lessons of material blessing are transferable to the sphere of the hungry heart that can only be sufficed by the pure word of God. We may take heart that our Savior cares for our earthly wants and our eternal wellbeing.
 
The shared plight of Elijah, the widow and her son reassures us of possible divine deliverance even on the brink of despair when resources are meager and on the verge of exhaustion. The Lord commands an impoverished widow whose pantry is nigh on empty to supply his meals when she expects only one meal more and then death. The visible prospects are dire. But Elijah’s God is true to his word spoken to the prophet. Flour jar and oil jug will be supernaturally replenished day after day until the rains return and vegetation revives. The cul-de-sac of drought and hopelessness will be amazingly obliterated.
 
The crowd gathered around Jesus is not as desperate as were Elijah and his hosts, but their situation was similarly impossible of solution. Seven loaves of bread and a few small fish could by no means satiate the hunger of about 4,000 men, and the earnest compassion of the Lord Jesus seemed as though it could not be summoned to practical success. The place where all were assembled was notoriously remote and the journey home on foot would have been too strenuous for the majority of the Lord’s three day audience without refreshment. The disciples were nonplused but in spite of the impossibility before everyone Jesus bade the people sit on the ground as if dinner might be somehow served.
 
The mighty hands of the Son of God took hold of the slender supply of food, he gave thanks, and broke the loaves for total distribution among the people. The third day in Scripture usually portends the display of a revelatory sign from God, and the feeding of the 4,000 pointed to Jesus as promised Messiah. Maybe persons with eyes of faith walked home in wonder. The miraculous supply for the meal of the crowd was more than sufficient, for the leftovers filled seven baskets. 

The power and provision of God is never straitened. Such is the meaning of the miracles. And the collect is based on the premise that in the gift of his grace the Lord is exceedingly generous beyond measure when necessary. He can increase our love for him, and increase the many reasons for our trust, obedience, piety and devotion. He is the nourisher of the Christian heart in all virtue and righteousness. His Name can become the supreme love of our hearts and he can keep them for himself. All things good are pledged to us. Nothing is impossible, even when conditions are not propitious.
 
RJS

THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021
 
Collect 
Lord God, you who have prepared for those who love you such good things that surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward you that, loving you above all things, we may obtain your promises, which are greater than we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
Holy Scripture says:
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the first-born of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
 
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Genesis 4 : 2b  - 7
 
 
Divine and Human Searching Of The Heart
 
Two brothers perform an act of homage before the Lord. One performance of reverential gratitude is accepted, that of Abel, and the other is rejected. Both offerings were acceptable to God as the history of Israel records and the use of biblical linguistics proves. Abel brought the pick of his flock to the Lord and Cain offered the fruits of the earth. Abel is identified as a man of faith (Hebrews 11:4). Cain is shown to be a fraud before God as a man evil of heart. The narrative reveals that God assesses the worth of sacrifice not according to appearance but to sincerity of a believing and humble heart.
 
The Lord weighs the hearts of the two brothers in discomforting comparison: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
 
As a person Abel knows that the way of salvation, comprehensively of acceptance with God and personal sanctification, is through humble trust, as a sinner reliant upon grace alone. Cain comes before the Lord casually as an unrepentant and evil man who is in the process of being dominated by sin with no desire to master it. It festers and flames within his heart and arouses his hatred of his brother which results in premeditated murder. His approach to the Lord is insincere and routine and means nothing to him. The Lord looks upon the heart that offers sacrifice and worship rather than upon the content of the object(s) of the offering presented to him.
 
Cain came before God as a liar who was angry toward God for discovering his wickedness within. The ‘demon’ “crouching at his door” gained residence in his heart and reigned there to the perpetration of great and serious sin, that lay waiting to manifest itself in unbridled fury.
 
All our worship and work for God requires purity that only God can supply. Our undetected and unconfessed impurities blight the life of the Church and ward off proffered blessings among us. We do well to come in fear and faith before the Lord and especially to the observances of his holy ordinances.
 
The account involving Cain and Abel penetrates the conscience as to the state of our souls in the presence of the All Holy One. There is only one way of access - through Jesus Christ and his shed blood. Only one appeal can emerge from our lips, Lord have mercy! 

RJS

 THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021
 
 
Collect
 
Lord God, mercifully hear us, we humbly pray, and grant that we, to whom you have given a sincere desire to pray, may be defended by your mighty power, and strengthened in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
 
Holy Scripture
2 Chronicles 33 : 9 - 13
 
But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem, astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.
 
The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.
 
 
1 Peter 5 : 5 – 11
 
Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
 
    “God opposes the proud
       but gives grace to the humble.”
 
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
 
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
 
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
 
 
HUMBLE ACCESS
 
It is key maxim of the Word of God that it is only the humble who receive the grace of God. Such humility is by no means a human virtue or a necessary qualification or merit for salvation. True humbling wrought in the heart of a believer is a work of grace and simultaneously the flip-side of the gift of faith. Martin Luther describes humility as the other side of the spiritual “coin of faith” (but he naturally suggests no notion of any purchasing power of this metaphorical coin).
 
Faith and humbleness are inseparable. Pride, arrogance, haughtiness is the sinful attitude of man that collides with the powerful resistance of divine repulsion and revulsion, immediately and perpetually, until it is caused to subside by the influence of the Holy Spirit. As Peter quotes from the Psalter, “God opposes the proud.” He also attests that all the children of God are to be clothed with humility. This vesture is not optional. It is the uniform or standard garb for all the people of God and we are to be carefully attired and modest in our internal life and its expression.
 
Likewise, in external ecclesiastical bearing, all clerical costume ought to be modest and never regarded as necessary, or appear splendidly gaudy. Simple clericals can emphasize the solemnity of ministerial office, and prepare the mind for duty and other-worldly worship, but it must never excite the sense of personal grandeur or self-importance of those who represent Jesus Christ. Every bishop ought best be graced by a humble eye and a sinner’s blush - the sheer “sartorial” fussiness of some. Bishops are servants of the servants and those who do not, as a priority, preach the word are not bishops at all.
 
A comment was once made by a high church Anglican that John Bunyan was not to be greatly regarded, as he did not belong to “the proper Church” (institutionally). But instead, the admirable Bunyan was indeed a true shepherd of his flock, as described by Peter elsewhere in his epistle, and, accordingly, the worthy Bedfordshire tinker, was known and honored by his people as “bishop”, faithfully feeding his flock the bread of life and romping with “the lambs”, the little children, of his various families on their cottage floors.
 
Whatever the qualities of genuine pastorship, a key attribute is lowliness. The scholarly pastor is without doubt an invaluable asset, if approachable, but the Lord has greatly blessed men of what may be deemed rather ordinary background and character.
 
Charles Simeon of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, gentleman and scholar, highly regarded John Stittle, founder of what became Eden Chapel in the same city. He rendered to Stitlle, a man who could not write, and was mocked by students, moral and financial support, and owned himself grateful that the dissenting minister took good care of Trinity’s strays.
 
Titles and attainments should never separate Christians into first and second class. Mutual respect is imperative, and working class and artisan parishes are often populated by men of honest and very able minds. At least, nowadays, no Anglican is obliged to address his bishop as “my lord!

Our English Reformers were generally men of great humility, courtesy and gentleness, as eminent and accomplished as they were, and grace established in them even the submissive spirit of martyrdom. One of those precious martyrs, Hugh Latimer, inveighed against the arrogance of certain holders of princely and fake episcopal office. Archbishop Marcus Loane observes in his book Masters of the English Reformation that Latimer became the friend of the poor, stating that “They in Christ are equal with you. Peers of the realm must needs be. [But] the poorest ploughman is in Christ equal with the greatest prince that is.”
 
God is not moved by pomp and pretentiousness of any kind. Before him all are weak, wicked and unreliable. And he will soon reveal to his chosen ones their evil nature, vulnerability to temptation, fluctuations of purpose and resolve, and coolness of devotion, love and obedience (without me you can do nothing). Paul was delivered from the snares of pride in the highest possible levels of spiritual experience; “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.”
 
However, the kindness of the Lord, after tempering pride, is enormous. In the guise of God-created humility an odious apostate such as Manasseh can be restored to God’s acceptance. We ourselves may find the welcome of the Lord as we humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand in all matters and moods of life. The motto of the great leader of the 18th century Awakening in the north of England, William Grimshaw, was “keep the proud chit down”; that is, to humble the childish vanity within each of us and bring it way down low, and under discipline at all times.
 
Humble access to God is the way of the lowly and contrite. It is that beautiful sentiment which is expressed by Thomas Cranmer in the prayer of humble access he composed for the Service of Holy Communion in the reformed Church of England: “We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy . . . ” We stoop before the Lord’s table.
 
All our self-reliance, boastfulness, and self-promotion, as it is being checked by the restraints and chastisements of the Lord, abates and bowed spirits usher us, undeservingly, into the comprehensive care of the Father. The mighty hand “will lift us up in due time”, his capacious lap will receive all our anxieties. Paul is able to affirm, “He cares for you”.
 
Pride is the barrier to the Lord’s infinite range of blessing - all grace (v10). Pride is Satan’s key to our manipulable minds and hearts. We shall never in this life shed the horrid tendency of pride. It is innate and always ready to surge in a multiplicity of subtle and not so subtle ways. But God makes its taste nauseating to the mouth and we yearn for its extinction. The Lord Jesus, lofty and lowly, says to us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” Matthew 11:29.
 
RJS

THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 


Collect 


Lord God, the unfailing helper and guide of those whom you nurture in your steadfast fear and love: Keep us, we pray, under the protection of your good providence, and give us a continual reverence and love for your holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 




The Gospel reading from Holy Scripture 
Luke 14 : 15 - 24 


When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 


Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. 


The first said, ‘I have just bought a field and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 


Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 


Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 


The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 


‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 


Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”




GRACE AND INGRATITUDE 
A Parable of Lame Excuses 


The man at the table where Jesus was dining came out with one of those statements that evidence trite religion and false piety, the kind of silly sentiment that is so disappointing when it follows a matter of great seriousness. The reference to the blessing of the kingdom falls into the category of religious cliche that dampens the importance of acute and weighty insight often prevalent, for example, in student questioning following a profound address from an eminent and godly specialist in his professional field. 


Quiet and contemplative departure is the best conclusion to a communication of superior quality. Those who try to prove themselves among their peers in public can deflate a carefully cultivated mood of elevated awareness. The spell is broken. We are not permitted to dwell for a while in the charm of the mystery of that which has been imparted. 


The table talk of the Lord Jesus was reduced to mind-numbing mundaneness by the guest who wrongly estimated himself as a fount of wisdom quite able to fittingly sum up the thought of the Savior. We revere Jesus’ word with due deliberation that blocks out cheap familiarity. The fellow-diner’s saying is comparable to that of the woman in the crowd who cried out, after a very solemn and terrifying discourse delivered by Jesus, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you” (Luke 11:27). This is an expression of unwarranted sentimentality at the conclusion of a dire warning. Jesus countered it with verbal realism of the most serious kind, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28). Folk are always tempted to tame the tongue of Messiah to the level of conventional twitter.


As it happens, unregenerate human nature has no aspiration toward the kingdom of God (John 3:3). It is simply a high-sounding phrase until the event of new birth and spiritual understanding. Those not born from above are averse to divine realities. Their entire concentration is upon this earthly life, even given their highest ideals along with their material desires. This universal tendency is succinctly illustrated in the parable of the great banquet. Man has no appetite for God and his ways. The allure and joy of heaven is proffered to mankind in terms of a rich and satiating feast of the most generous, enjoyable and convivial kind. But the appetite among the self-satisfied and contented is not there.


The excuses for absence are unpardonable in terms of social convention in Jesus’ time. The guests were issued an invitation well before it was intended that they should come. The splendid occasion for which they were specially selected for privilege and celebration would take time for planning and preparation. Its lavishness would be stunning and the requirements for the guests carefully calculated and supplies sufficiently available. Organization would be of careful exactitude - nothing overlooked or amiss. When the day of completion was at last predictable the guests would receive notice of readiness and their commitment to be present gratefully acknowledged by host and household upon arrival. It would be absolutely shocking to receive refusals at this rude juncture. But the invitations are not prized by the recipients and the catalogue of cancellations is patently untrue and insulting. 


Three examples are cited for non-attendance. The first ingrate mentions a field he has just bought and he must examine it. But would anyone purchase a property without first inspecting it? No way! The transaction would require careful preparation for assessment of suitability and arrangement of finance. The man lies and even blatantly disregards the preparatory arrangements effected by the host that he has deceived.


The second ungrateful individual has just bought five yoke of oxen and must “try them out”. Would a farmer acquire a John Deere tractor with out checking it over before handing over its price? This is another untruth revealing contempt for the lord of the banquet. The third man is a downright twister of marital circumstances. In Jewish society the custom was to relieve newly-wed males from one year’s military service. It was not relief from normal social undertakings however inconvenient.


Thus we have three defaulters defying voluntary obligation sealed by solemn promises. Their behavior is inexcusable. These are just examples of a general unwillingness to attend the banquet, hence the master of the house orders a wide and indiscriminate bidding to fill his hall to capacity with guests who formerly would never have shared a cup of tea with the nobility - the socially deprived and scorned of circumstance. When these are gathered, the immense compassion and generosity of the man of enormous affluence is manifested in a further command to his servants. The outcasts and itinerants not suited to well-ordered town life, not wanted among accepted citizenry because their impolite lifestyle, rough appearance and awkward behavior were socially offensive or shameful, these undeserving folk were to be ‘made to come”, effectually persuaded by the strongest possible words of insistence, the word of mercy wherever the wretched and helpless happen to be. Likewise, it is the insistence and effectual call of God that brings the unworthy into his kingdom, as Augustine asserts. It is pride, deviousness, and selfishness that denies the willingly unwilling the ability to enter. 


RJS